THE IMPACT OF A MOTHER’S PRAYER
Picture an old woman with a halo of silvered hair--the hot tears flowing down her furrowed cheeks--her worn hands busy over a washboard in a room of poverty--praying--for her son John--John who ran away from home in his teens to become a sailor--John of whom it was now reported that he had become a very wicked man--praying, praying always, that her son might be of service to God. The mother believed in two things, the power of prayer and the reformation of her son. God answered the prayer by working a miracle in the heart of John Newton.
John Newton, the sailor-preacher, instrumental in abolishing slavery and the proclamation of the gospel. This resulted because a mother took God at His word and prayed that her son’s heart might become as white as the soapsuds in the washtub.
(Springs in the Valley as recorded in Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopaedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc. From a sermon by Matthew Kratz, A Faithful Mother, 5/6/2011)